4 ms·

Facebook is quietly buying up the metaverse

17 points by blacktulip 5y ago

astlouis44 5y ago
Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Google could easily outspend Facebook/Meta on metaverse efforts if they wanted to.
- MR4D 5y ago
  But FB can outspend them all on the thing that counts at that level - focus. FB is crazily focused on it. It is unlikely to be more that a rounding error or a distraction to the others.
- fullshark 5y ago
  I'd be happy if they did actually use their warchests to build new products/technologies instead of wait for someone else to prove the concept then try and take their market share.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- twirlock 5y ago
  You say that like none of them have already been trying.
filoeleven 5y ago
Let’s be clear: there is no “THE metaverse” yet. If there ever is, Facebook is unlikely to be the owner/primary facilitator of it. The article’s contents kind of say the same thing. The name change is pure hubris. If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. It seems unlikely that a real-world analogue of Snow Crash’s “The Street” will ever materialize though, because there is essentially no public computing space, and no plans for any. I could be wrong: Zuck might mutate into a real-world L. Bob Rife, controlling the infrastructure and using it to stealthily subvert all of humankind to his own wishes through means that slip under most people’s radars. Wait, hang on…
- tata71 5y ago
  > If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. Likely an L2 on top of Ethereum network.
- wahern 5y ago
  > If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. Like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project P2P event architecture (among viewers) for 3D spaces hosted on your own server, and a portals system for jumping (i.e. linking) between separately hosted spaces. There's a more modern, commercial oriented incarnation of the concept at https://www.croquet.io/ https://www.croquet.io/, but I'm not sure how hosting works, or whether they preserved the portal aspect.
footlose_3815 5y ago
I will make a webserver and call it Social Media 2: Electric Boogaloo and I'll call it a metaverse.
smackeyacky 5y ago
This is good. Let them burn cash and shares and time and get swallowed into the giant dud that the metaverse promises to be and hopefully it will implode the whole enterprise. It will be a giant exercise in creative destruction that might mean I can talk to my aunt again without getting pilloried with anti vax and reactionary political nonsense.

17 points by blacktulip 5y ago

astlouis44 5y ago

Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and Google could easily outspend Facebook/Meta on metaverse efforts if they wanted to.

MR4D 5y ago
But FB can outspend them all on the thing that counts at that level - focus. FB is crazily focused on it. It is unlikely to be more that a rounding error or a distraction to the others.
fullshark 5y ago
I'd be happy if they did actually use their warchests to build new products/technologies instead of wait for someone else to prove the concept then try and take their market share.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
twirlock 5y ago
You say that like none of them have already been trying.

filoeleven 5y ago

Let’s be clear: there is no “THE metaverse” yet. If there ever is, Facebook is unlikely to be the owner/primary facilitator of it. The article’s contents kind of say the same thing. The name change is pure hubris. If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. It seems unlikely that a real-world analogue of Snow Crash’s “The Street” will ever materialize though, because there is essentially no public computing space, and no plans for any. I could be wrong: Zuck might mutate into a real-world L. Bob Rife, controlling the infrastructure and using it to stealthily subvert all of humankind to his own wishes through means that slip under most people’s radars. Wait, hang on…

tata71 5y ago
> If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. Likely an L2 on top of Ethereum network.
wahern 5y ago
> If there is eventually a metaverse, it will be an open protocol that can be run on any server. Like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croquet_Project P2P event architecture (among viewers) for 3D spaces hosted on your own server, and a portals system for jumping (i.e. linking) between separately hosted spaces. There's a more modern, commercial oriented incarnation of the concept at https://www.croquet.io/ https://www.croquet.io/, but I'm not sure how hosting works, or whether they preserved the portal aspect.

footlose_3815 5y ago

I will make a webserver and call it Social Media 2: Electric Boogaloo and I'll call it a metaverse.

smackeyacky 5y ago

This is good. Let them burn cash and shares and time and get swallowed into the giant dud that the metaverse promises to be and hopefully it will implode the whole enterprise. It will be a giant exercise in creative destruction that might mean I can talk to my aunt again without getting pilloried with anti vax and reactionary political nonsense.